


A Salt Sore Soaked in the Sea

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AtLA AU, Gen, Shiro is 19, allura is 17, and pidge is 15, coran is like 30, lance hunk and keith are 16, non canon ages, she/her pronouns for pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 20:36:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7728865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s quite simple, really,” Pidge mumbled. “They’re wonderful Earthbenders. One can metalbend, the other can lavabend. The Fire Nation’s using them to mass produce weapons,” Pidge finished, her eyes shaking. “Now, get on your dragon. This’ll be a long ride.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Salt Sore Soaked in the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> avatar is my shit, dude. i know i keep on talking about an altean!pidge au but like, i didn't like how it came out so have this instead :^). i plan on writing the altean!pidge //eventually//, but with school starting again, i dont know how exactly im gonna make it how i want/when ill update. expect slow updates. also, a lot of cursing/meme refs.

_Deep breaths, Katie._ Pidge thought carefully. _Remember––the plant is only an extension of yourself. Become the plant, and move._ Pidge concentrated on the water inside of the plant, and felt it begin to move. For a brief second, the plant _spoke_ to Pidge; _good work, little one._

 

The plant stretched out, and Pidge squealed. She wiggled her fingers, grinning wildly. The plant waved back and forth, as if it was dancing. Her pet catowl meow-hooted, or meooted, before flapping her wings impatiently. Pidge rolled her eyes. 

 

“I’m _going,_ Green,” Pidge said, dropping her fingers and allowing the plant to return to its normal state. “I thought that _maybe_ I could celebrate the fact I managed to _finally_ plantbend.” Green seemed to roll her eyes.

 

Green made a noise again, before flying outside the small treehouse. Pidge turned her head towards the window, before gaping. 

 

_There was a dragon in her forest!_

 

Pidge growled. “Nope. Not today, you Fire Nation fuckers.” She pulled her hair into a rushed ponytail, grabbed her bag, and jumped out of the door, quickly manipulating the water into catching her. Green quickly swooped towards the river and waited until Pidge returned from under the surface. 

 

Pidge shot herself out of the water like a firework, and flew out towards the long, red dragon lying on her precious forest. Green rolled her eyes; _leave it to my dear Katie to make things so complicated._ Pidge flew, grinning slightly before she landed in a tree a few meters above the dragon. Green flew to catch up with her owner.

 

The people on the dragon hadn’t noticed her yet, so she kept low. There were four people on the dragon, and Pidge took out her glasses from her bag. She meddled with the side of the glass, zooming in on the people. She gasped slightly. Two Fire Nation citizens and two Air Nomad citizens. She tentatively crawled out of her tree. Clearly, if the Fire Nation citizens were hostile, the Air Nomad citizens wouldn’t be peaceful. Unless they were being held prisoner. 

 

“Green,” Pidge whispered. “Can you get a closer look?” 

 

The catowl meooted, before flying in front of Pidge. Pidge smiled. “Good girl,” she murmured, pulling out a small mechanical camera from her pocket and placing it on the hole Green had on her ear. She meooted again, before flying out towards the dragon. 

 

Pidge grabbed her transmission screen from the bag, and connected it to Green’s feed.A somewhat buzzy-but-still-legible livefeed began to play, and Pidge concentrated on it. Green flew above them, close enough to get a good view of what they were doing.

 

The tallest of the group had a rather large, but new, cut on the bridge of his nose. He had bits of white in his hair, and was missing an arm. Pidge gasped. _Escapees?_ The boy next to him had messy hair that clearly hadn’t been washed in a while. He was emitting a small flame from his hand, cooking a small fish. The two air-natives were both speaking in hushed voices. One was a young woman with arrow tattoos, while the other was a middle-aged man with none. They were shivering slightly.

 

Pity filled Pidge’s being. “Green, come back,” she muttered. The catowl let out a loud meoot, and the greasy-haired boy grinned, turning towards her precious pet.

 

A fireball was about to shoot out of his hand, and Pidge exploded with panic. _No! You are not eating Green for dinner!_ She shot out of the tree and landed in the middle of the dragon’s saddle. She was panting. 

 

“ _Don’t_ shoot at her,” she growled. All four of them stared at her. She flushed, suddenly, and Green landed on her head, rolling her eyes, and make a mocking meoot. “ _Shut up,_ Green,” she mumbled. She turned towards the firebender. Her eyes gazed at their _obvious_ injuries.

 

“I have food, medical treatment, and a roof. Follow me,” she sighed. She jumped off of the dragon and landed in the river under the tree canopy, once again shooting herself off like a firework. She landed on the roof of her treehouse, landing on her hands and spring boarding herself inside. The dragon quickly landed near the treehouse, and Pidge instead took the steps down, stepping down in front of the majestic creature.

 

“Alright... nice place, I think?” The firebender said, scratching his head. “Sorry for trying to eat your pet,” he muttered. Pidge grinned. He didn’t like apologies. She could tell.

 

“Nice to meet’cha. Name’s Pidge. I’m the guardian of the forest,” she introduced, bowing forwards. The armless one raised an eyebrow.

 

“The guardian of the forest?” 

 

Pidge let out a nervous laugh. “Well, it’s kind of a self-declared title? I live here and the animals are wary around strangers. They like me, though. I usually leave strangers alone, but when you see a large dragon... well...” She rubbed her arm bashfully. “I live here alone. I’m allowed to be worried. Sorry for randomly jumping out of a tree.” 

 

The firebender let out a small chuckle. “We didn’t know anyone lived here. _Alone._ How old are you?” He asked. Pidge looked down, twiddling with her thumbs.

 

“Uh––I’m younger than you,” Pidge said, looking down for a few seconds. “But who are _you_ lot? Why are you so wounded and hungry? Come in, come in. Green, stay outside and make sure no one dangerous is in the forest.”

 

Pidge lead them up into her large treehouse. Green let out an annoyed, but compliant meoot before flying off and doing the nightly perimeter check. Pidge turned towards the four guests in her home. 

 

“I only really have nuts and fruits but I have tons, plus some herbs to make some tea. I have a few fish, but that’ll take a while to prepare,” Pidge said. “Also, where are the worst wounds? I can handle those easy-peasy.” 

 

The armless one looked at her, a confused expression on his face. “Waterbender, _remember?_ I literally shot out like a firework from the river.” Pidge said, rolling her eyes. He flushed a little. Pidge waited.

 

“I-uh- my cut. And the arm wound... well, if you could ease the pain, that’d be nice,” He said. Pidge swiped her hand through the air, collecting the water she could find. She managed to get about a few palmfuls of water, and she went on her tippy-toes. and put the water on the armless boy’s face. The water began to glow a bright blue, and the red cut faded into a grey scar. Pidge moved the water onto the armless shoulder, trying to ease the bleeding and let the pain fade away. 

 

She eventually pulled away to see his face much less contorted. He grinned at her.

 

“Well, thank you, Pidge. I’m Shiro,” he introduced. Pidge smiled at him. She quickly moved to the small kitchen, grabbing her small pot. 

 

“Yo, greaser?” Pidge hollered. The firebender scowled at her. Pidge smiled cheekily. 

 

“Can you light a fire over here?” Pidge asked as she climbed the pole she added in her kitchen to get to the cupboards. She pulled out three peaches for everyone, a baggie of nuts, and grabbed a few leaves and flowers. She slid back down the pole, setting the fruit and nuts on the counter. She went for the fridge, and opened it quickly. She snatched two large fish, and set that on the counter as well.

 

Greaser had already lit a small fire on her metal table with some of her old brush, so Pidge grabbed her pot and swiped her hand through the air again, collecting some water and placing it in the pot. She placed the leaves in the flowers in the pot, and let it boil. She grabbed a log, and a smaller stick, and placed it adjacent of the tea’s pot. 

 

Catching the stick on fire, Pidge put the fire onto the log and placed her thin sheet of stone above the wood. Placing her fish on the stone tablet, she went into the drawers under the sink, grabbing salt and pepper. She pulled out some lemons, and placed the spices on and in the fish and quickly squeezing the lemons of their juice. She dabbed the fish in the juice, and returned it on the stone slab. Satisfied, she washed her hands and went back to the room where the escapees were sitting. 

 

Her catowl was perched on her branch, and was hissing at the Greaser. Pidge laughed. 

 

“Green doesn’t usually hold grudges, you know,” Pidge teased the firebender. He looked at Pidge with a face that screamed _I beg for the sweet release of death._ Pidge let out a small laugh. She sat down on the floor, and turned to face her guests.

 

“So, tell me about yourselves,” Pidge said. “It’s the least you can do.”

 

The woman spoke first. “Hello, Pidge,” she said. “My name is Allura. I’m an airbender, if you couldn’t tell, and this is Coran. He’s a mechanic, and we’re both from the Western Air Temple.”

 

Shiro smiled tentatively. “I’m the Avatar,” he said calmly. “But the Fire Nation doesn’t know that. I’m from there, but I’m an orphan and I’ve always lived on the streets. They totally wrecked the Avatar. Whoops,” Shiro laughed nervously. Pidge stared at him for two seconds. 

 

“Nope. No _pe. Nope._ Fuck you, fuck this, fuck––you’re going to need a fucking arm. Great,” she said, dropping a bag of nuts on Greaser’s head. She jumped out of the window. Green just meooted, and an extremely confused and terrified room full of guests stared out of the window.

 

“Um,” Shiro said, staring outside. Green rolled her eyes before letting out another meoot. 

 

A flash of green and blue came back through the window, and it was Pidge, holding a bunch of parts. “Give me a night. Make sure the fish doesn’t burn. Don’t touch my stuff. Goodnight,” Pidge rambled, walking straight into a room and locking the door. Green, now perched on the branch in the main room, had a smug look in her eyes. _Be prepared to be impressed,_ they said. Shiro shuddered. He turned over to the airbender.

 

“But it’s only sunset––” Greaser said.

 

“Someone needs to make sure we don’t accidentally burn her house down.” Shiro said, sighing as he walked over to the kitchen.

 

 

The moment the sun perched from the canopy, Pidge threw open the door she locked the night before. She accidentally stepped on Greaser’s hand, emitting a yelp from him, and she was practically steaming. Green, awoken by the door snapping open, made a loud meoot, waking up all four of the guests. Shiro looked towards Pidge, and his mouth _dropped._

 

“Here, you _deadass._ I can’t believe you lost your arm,” Pidge remarked, throwing the object she had in her hands at Shiro. Shiro was gaping.

 

“ _How did you make a prosthetic in under twelve hours?!”_ Allura gasped, looking at the hunk of metal in both horror and awe. Pidge grinned. 

 

“My brother, he’s an engineer. And a metalbender. I may not be able to bend metal but I know how it works. You should be able to bend through it, and it’s _pure platinum._ Nothing should be able to control you through that arm. I _would_ make the necessary improvements as we speak, but...” Pidge trailed off. Greaser was holding his hand and gaping at the short girl.

 

“But?” he demanded. 

 

“ _But,_ I am ready for death and I’d rather wait for _Matt_... I mean, Maybe we can hit Ba Sing Se. I know an earthbender mechanic there that should be able help. He also has a waterbender for a friend. Maybe he can train you,” Pidge said, shrugging. Coran looked at Pidge in awe.

 

“Can’t you train Shiro? You’re clearly talented in waterbending––”

 

“I wasn’t trained, though. I’m completely self-taught. I’m also really bad at the whole... teaching thing. Besides, Lance is _much_ better at dealing with people than I am. I’ll take you there, but you should probably stay away from me,” Pidge said quietly.

 

Greaser looked at Pidge like she was mentally ill. “Pidge, are you _crazy?!_ The fact you’re self-taught makes you so much better! You can shoot yourself out of a river like a _firework!”_

 

Pidge turned over to Greaser. “Listen, Greasy-head, but I have _priorities._ As much as I would _love_ to be around strangers, I have important things to do.” 

 

“It’s _Keith,_ Shorty,” Greaser snapped. “And what could be more important than training the freakin’ Avatar?” He challenged. Pidge squinted her eyes angrily at Keith. 

 

“I have a _family,_ and they were taken away from me by the damn Fire Nation. Excuse me for wanting to find them,” she snapped, clenching her first. Green perched herself on Pidge’s shoulder, meooting softly. “ _Look,_ I’m sorry. I don’t hold their disappearance against you, but I need to _find_ them. I can take you to Ba Sing Se, but that’s all I can do for you.” Pidge said, turning away from the four guests in her living room. 

 

Shiro put his new metal arm on Pidge’s shoulder.

 

“Pidge,” he said softly. “Why were they taken from you?”

 

Pidge turned around quickly, and she grabbed his hand, shoving it away from her body.

 

“It’s quite simple, really,” Pidge mumbled. “They’re wonderful Earthbenders. One can metalbend, the other can lavabend. The Fire Nation’s using them to mass produce weapons,” Pidge finished, her eyes shaking. “Now, get on your dragon. This’ll be a long ride.” 

 

“How are you going to get around?” Keith sputtered. Green squawked at Keith and grabbed Pidge by the back of her shirt, one with metal-and-fabric grips for the creature. 

 

“Green isn’t _just_ a catowl. She was the last thing I got from my brother. She’s a cyborg,” Pidge said, rolling her eyes like it was obvious. Green picked Pidge up, carrying the girl like she weighed nothing. “He found her injured a few years back. She wasn’t going to make it, so in order to save her, he implanted some metal into her system and _boom,_ she’s just like a normal catowl. Except she can take orders and communicate with me.” 

 

Shiro stared at the catowl owlishly. “That’s why they want them so bad, huh?” 

 

Pidge’s eyes turned hard as stone. “Yeah. Now get on with it. Green, set course to Ba Sing Se!”


End file.
